Newsbites: How Slash quit drugs

Cleaned up: Slash

Slash says he found it relatively easy to give up drink and drugs once he’d made the decision to do so in 2008. “I slated a date for when I was going to put myself into rehab,” he explains. “Two months from that time I was at a friend’s house and I’d done the last of my smack. On that day, I got up, left his house and went to rehab. That was that.” [National Post]

Justin Hawkins says Hot Leg, the band he formed after leaving the Darkness, was an experiment unlikely to be repeated. He believes those songs “belong in the laboratory” and adds: “That curiosity has been satisfied now.” The reunited Darkness release new album Hot Cakes in August.

Blues guitarist-vocalist Michael Burks has died on tour at the age of 54. He collapsed in a US airport after travelling home from a European tour. It’s believed he suffered a heart attack.

Bassist Shawn Economaki has left Stone Sour. Guitarist Jim Root says: “Shawn is no longer with us. He’s still a great friend and we’re in touch. A lot has happened in the past year. We need to move forward.” An unidentified “dude that shreds” is currently working with the band. Economaki bowed out mid-tour in April last year to deal with “personal issues”.

Former Korn guitarist Brian ‘Head’ Welch appeared on stage with the band during Saturday’s Carolina Rebellion Festival in North Carolina and performed the classic track Blind with them. It was his first time on stage with the band since he left in 2005.

Queensryche frontman Geoff Tate would love ex-guitarist Chris DeGarmo to rejoin – but he doesn’t think it’ll happen. “He and I were very close working together,” says the singer. “I’d definitely work with Chris again. But I think he’s just into a different part of his life and happy with that.” Founding member DeGarmo left Queensryche after 2007 album Sign of the Times and now works as a charter pilot.

Original Dio bassist Jimmy Bain says Vivian Campbell’s sacking from the band was the worst mistake Ronnie James Dio ever made. He comments: “Viv did nothing to warrant his removal in what is still considered to be a cowardly way. The problem could have easily been solved if there had been a will to do so.” [Metal Hammer]

Ted Nugent let the pressure show during a TV interview last week, threatening to sexually assault two members of a CBS news crew. Insisting he was a “damned nice guy” he told interviewer Jeff Glor that if anyone could disprove his assertion, “I’ll suck your dick.” Then he turned to an off-screen female journalist and added: “Or I’ll fuck you. How’s that sound?” Glor says Nugent later apologised after his wife told him off, and blamed the outburst on a kidney stone.